In November of 2022, apropos of some rather histrionic Twitter posts, the College of Psychologists of Ontario told Jordan Peterson that he would either have to take a “Specified Continuing Education or Remedial Program” to “review, reflect on and ameliorate [his] professionalism in public statements,” or risk losing his license. He has been fighting and trying to appeal it ever since, claiming that the CPO wishes to send him to a “reeducation camp.”
Peterson then filed a judicial review request with the Ontario Divisional Court in hopes that they would overturn the CPO’s decision. In late August of this year, the Court rejected that request. So he then appealed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario, which decided earlier this month to not give him an appeal. He is now shit out of luck if he wishes to continue practicing as a psychologist in Canada without taking this course.
Naturally, Jordan Peterson responded to this in a very professional and normal way.
“I want the entire current crop of minions at the College of Psychologists to publicly apologize and then resign–en masse,” he wrote on social media. “They want me to undergo re-education, which they know will take up my time and fail in any case, so they can undermine my reputation and take my licence away anyway.”
Yes, either that or they want you to not be an asshole.
Peterson then wrote a totally professional and non-Disney-villain-esque op-ed in the National Post titled “Bureaucrats will rue the day they tried to shut me out.”
Then, on Friday, he made an appearance on “Fox and Friends” to complain, again, about having to take a freaking remedial course in basic professionalism.
But Jordan Peterson has a plan! He is going to make a bajillion dollars opening up an “online university” to counter left-wing bias in education, just like Bari Weiss is doing. He wants the CPO to be clear that he doesn’t need them and he doesn’t need anybody to make money — which is probably true, as he does have his acolytes.
Though, you know, he might still take the course, just because he has to, who can really say?
The fact is, it is a psychologist’s job to care for and help other human beings. If someone is spending all of their free time absolutely raging over not finding Sports Illustrated models attractive or about the mere existence of trans actors they have never and will never meet in real life, how can they be trusted to help other people?
In most cases, it is a person’s right to be an emotionally unregulated asshole, so long as they do not actively hurt anyone else. Indeed, I will fight for that right as long as it doesn’t interfere with anything else I am doing that day. But if it is your actual job to care for other, potentially vulnerable people, then that is not okay. What matters in that case is creating a healthy and safe environment for them.
While it certainly is troubling that a licensed psychologist is fatphobic and not up to date on their understanding of transgender people, the fact that he has been actively and cruelly attacking people whose existence he disagrees with — whether because they are trans or overweight — was probably what did him in.
The job of the College of Psychologists of Ontario is to distribute licenses to those they feel are qualified to treat people. Peterson’s actions show that he is not and that he is more likely to damage or attack a patient if he for some reason does not believe they should exist.
Quite frankly, I wish that therapists and psychologists in the US were more heavily regulated. Perhaps, if that were the case, we would not have had that whole terrifying period in which many of them were going around drugging women and convincing them they had repressed memories of murdering babies in a Satanic cult.
PREVIOUSLY IN JORDAN PETERSON:
